Over the last five years GP patients have become older, are more
likely to be obese, and are more likely to be new to any given
general practice, according to a new report by the Australian
Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) and the University of
Sydney.
General Practice Activity in Australia 2003-04 was
launched today at the National Health Information Summit in
Melbourne by the Chair of the AIHW Board, the Hon Peter Collins AM,
QC. It is the sixth annual report of the BEACH (Bettering the
Evaluation and Care of Health) data collection program. Every year
the BEACH program draws on data from 100,000 GP-patient encounters
nationally (1,000 randomly recruited GPs across Australia, 100
consecutive patient encounters each).
Director of the AIHW's General Practice Statistics and
Classification Unit at the University of Sydney, Professor Helena
Britt, said that older patients (65+) are taking up an increasing
proportion of the GP workload, moving from 24.1% in 1999-00 to
26.8% in 2003-04.
'This perhaps reflects the well-publicised ageing of the
population, and increased life expectancy,' Dr Britt said.
More of the patients visiting GPs are obese or overweight. The
proportion of adults who were obese rose from 19.4% to 22.0%, while
the proportion who were overweight rose from 33.1% to 34.5% over
the five years. The proportion of children who were obese (13%) had
not changed since 2000-01, but the proportion who were overweight
rose from 15.3% to 19.0%.
Dr Britt said she did not think this augured well for the future
health of the community.
The proportion of patients new to doctors' practices has
increased, by 27% over the five-year period, from 7.3% to 9.3%.
'This may be indicating increased mobility in the Australian
population, but raises questions about possible future decreases in
continuity of care,' Dr Britt said.
The decrease in GP-prescribed medications reported last year was
sustained through 2003-04, but the number of pathology tests
ordered by GPs rose by 14% over the last 2 years (an estimated 4
million additional test orders).
Professor Britt said that patients were increasingly making
appointments for prescriptions, referrals, tests or investigations,
and less likely to visit GPs with symptoms and complaints, or for
specified diseases.
'This may suggest increasing long-term management of chronic
diseases. This year, for the first time, we investigated the extent
to which GPs are managing chronic diseases, and found that at least
one chronic problem was managed at 40% of all encounters.
Hypertension was the most-frequently managed chronic problem,
followed by depression, then diabetes, lipid disorders and
osteoarthritis. Together these accounted for almost half of all
chronic problems managed.'
Dr Britt also said there had been a steady decline in the
management rate of respiratory problems, largely due to a
significant fall in management rates of upper respiratory tract
infections, acute bronchitis and asthma.
6 December 2004
Further information: A/Professor Helena Britt,
0411 197 938 or 02 9845 8150
For media copies of the report: Publications
Officer, AIHW, tel. 02 6244 1032.
Availability: Check the AIHW Publications
Catalogue for availability of General practice activity in
Australia 2003-04, December 2004.